Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 7/19/21

Lawmakers are looking to pass legislation that targets China’s ability to purchase agricultural land in the United States, reports our Ryan McCrimmon, amid a larger push from the Biden administration to reduce economic reliance on the economic and national security rival.

By the numbers: Chinese firms have expanded their presence in American agriculture over the last decade by snapping up farmland and purchasing major agribusinesses, like pork processing giant Smithfield Foods. By the start of 2020, Chinese owners controlled about 192,000 agricultural acres in the U.S., worth $1.9 billion, including land used for farming, ranching and forestry, according to the Agriculture Department.

USDA reported in 2018 that China’s agricultural investments in other nations had grown more than tenfold since 2009. The Chinese Communist Party is supporting the foreign agriculture investments in order to gain more control over the country’s food supply chain.

The current restrictions: Some states like Iowa and Minnesota already have their own forms of restrictions on foreign ownership of farmland. Others, like Texas, are far more open to foreign investments.

What about the others? Nationals from European countries and Canada hold vastly more farmland in the U.S., and lawmakers have questioned the appropriateness of giving subsidies to U.S. companies that are subsidiaries of overseas firms, like JBS.

Stay tuned for Hill action: During the recent House Appropriations markup of the Agriculture-FDA spending bill, the committee adopted an amendment to block any new agricultural purchases by companies that are wholly or partly controlled by the Chinese government and bar Chinese-owned farms from tapping federal support programs.

Committee leaders promised to keep working on the language to address concerns from some members about singling out China. Stay tuned to Morning Ag as the bill heads toward the House floor later this month as part of a bigger appropriations package.